Barbers and Surgeons in the “Medical Marketplace” of the Fifteenth-Century Corleone
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RiMe Rivista dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea ISBN 9788897317517 ISSN 2035‐794X numero 4/II n. s., giugno 2019 Barbers and Surgeons in the “medical marketplace” of the Fifteenth‐century Corleone Patrizia Sardina DOI: https://doi.org/10.7410/1381 Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche http://rime.cnr.it RiMe, n. 4/II n. s., giugno 2019, 217 p. ISBN 9788897317517 - ISSN 2035-794X DOI https://doi.org/10.7410/1378 RiMe 4/II n.s. (June 2019) Indice / Table of Contents Maria Antonietta Russo 5-30 Sulle origini del priorato cluniacense di Santa Maria delle Giummare di Sciacca (XII secolo) / About the origins of the Cluniac priory of Santa Maria delle Giummare of Sciacca (12th century) Francesco D'Angelo 31-45 Una retrospettiva su Sigurðr Jórsalafari? Una proposta interpretativa della Gran Conquista de Ultramar e le relazioni tra Norvegia e Castiglia / A retrospection on Sigurðr Jórsalafari? A retrospection on Sigurðr Jórsalafari? An interpretative proposal of the Gran Conquista de Ultramar and the relations between Norway and Castile in the 13th century Valerio Luca Floris 47-70 Le visite pastorali in Sardegna nel medioevo ed in età moderna: difficoltà, modalità, fonti, storiografia / Pastoral visits in Sardinia during the Middle and Modern age: difficulties, modalities, sources, historiography Patrizia Sardina 71-97 Barbers and Surgeons in the "medical marketplace" of the Fifteenth-century Corleone. Giuseppe Campagna 99-123 Note sulla schiavitù in Sicilia tra Tardo Medioevo e Prima Età Moderna / Notes on slavery in Sicily in the late Middle Ages to the early Modern Age Valentina Favarò - Paolo Calcagno 125-150 Le flotte degli Austrias e gli scali italiani: una messa a punto / The Austrias fleets and the Italian ports of call: a fine-tuning Massimo Viglione 151-194 Crociata, containement e peace-keeping nella politica dei Papi verso l’Islām ottomano (secoli XIV-inizio XVIII) / Crusade, containement and peace-keeping RiMe, n. 4/II n. s., giugno 2019, 217 p. ISBN 9788897317517 - ISSN 2035-794X DOI https://doi.org/10.7410/1378 in the politics of the Popes towards the Ottoman Islām (14th-early 18th centuries) Michela Luzi 195-212 Mediterraneo, oltre le paure per una nuova agorà / Mediterranean, beyond fears for a new agora Book Reviews Giuseppe Campagna 215-217 David Gonzàlez Cruz (coord.) (2018) Barcos y construcción naval entre el Atlàntico y el Mediterráneo en la Època de los descubrimientos (siglos XV y XVI). Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. RiMe, n.4/II n. s., giugno 2019, pp. 71-97 ISBN 9788897317517 - ISSN 2035-794X DOI https://doi.org/10.7410/1381 Barbers and Surgeons in the medical marketplace of the Fifteenth-century Corleone∗ Patrizia Sardina (Università degli Studi di Palermo) Date of receipt: 19th March 2019 Date of acceptance: 2nd May 2019 Abstract Riassunto The article analyses the role of surgeons L’articolo analizza il ruolo di chirurghi e and barbers in the fifteenth-century barbieri nella Corleone del XV secolo, Corleone, royal town in the hinterland of centro demaniale dell’entroterra siciliano, Sicily with a pretty rich economy based on con un’economia agro-pastorale abbastanza agriculture and sheep-breeding. The fiorente. Emerge l’esistenza di un “medical documents reveal a rich and complex marketplace” ricco e composito, nel quale i medical marketplace were the barbers went barbieri operavano in società con altri into partnership with other barbers or with barbieri o con i chirurghi. Inoltre, chirurghi surgeons. Furthermore, surgeons and e barbieri investivano nel mercato barbers invested in the real estate market, immobiliare, commerciavano vino, traded wine, wheat and animals, had frumento, animali e possedevano schiavi. A slaves. In Corleone there were also barber- Corleone lavoravano anche barbieri- surgeons from Naro, Palermo, Caltabellotta chirurghi di Naro, Palermo, Caltabellotta e and renowned surgeons of Polizzi, with i rinomati chirurghi di Polizzi, con i quali i whom barbers of Corleone could train. In barbieri potevano svolgere il loro tirocino. the notorial acts the same person could be Nei documenti notarili la stessa persona qualified as magister, barber and surgeon, può essere definita magister, barbiere, however according to the patients the skill chirurgo, del resto per i pazienti l’abilità of the practioner was more important than dell’operatore medico era più importante his qualification. della loro qualifica. Keywords Parole chiave Medicine; Sicily; Corleone; Middle Ages. Medicina; Sicilia; Corleone; Medioevo. 1. Physicians, surgeons and barbers in Sicily. - 2. Medical practices and socio-economic status of barbers and surgeons in the fifteenth-century Corleone. - 3. The varied activity of the barber Gaspare de Burello and the social climb of the surgeon Antonio de Garlano. - 4. The surgeons of Polizzi and the medical ∗ In Sicily the standard unity of currency was the onza; one onza was worth 30 tarì, one tarì 20 grani. A salma was a measure of weight equivalent to c. 275 kg. Patrizia Sardina marketplace of Corleone between professionalization and popular medicine. - 5. Conclusions. - 6. Bibliography. - 7. Curriculum vitae. 1. Physicians, surgeons and barbers in Sicily In the eighteenth century the Italian surgeon Carlo Burci distinguished three different historical periods: the old one when the physician was also a surgeon, the second one, “[…] in cui il medico, fatto vanitoso del suo sapere e sdegnoso dell’opera della mano, abbandonò la stessa chirurgia agl’ignoranti, ai barbieri, ai ciarlatani”1, the third period, i.e. the contemporary one, when the combination of medicine and surgery returned (Cosmacini, 2003, pp. VII-VIII). It wasn’t a new idea. In the twelth century Lanfranco da Milano analysed this topic in the Chirurgia magna, according to a long tradition that included the Salernitan School of Medicine, Teodorico Borgognoni, and his teacher Guglielmo da Saliceto. Lanfranco criticized the proud surgeons who had left some traditional treatments, like bleeding and cauterization, to barbers and women. In his opinion, to reform the teaching one had to reveal the mistakes of the empiric surgeons “ignorant of the basis for the procedures this surgery has produced” (Mc Vaugh, 2006, p. 79). In Kira Robison’s opinion, “This reflected the traditional split in formal medical education between “theoretical” and “practical” medicine, “book learning” versus hands-on-practice, the text versus the knife” (Robison, 2014, pp. 178-179). In the sixteenth-century Palermo the physician who treated internal illnesses was called “medico di urina”, because he made his diagnosis by examining the urine, instead the surgeon who treated wounds, sores, and fractures was called “medico di piaga”, he didn’t analyse urine or practice internal medicine. Surgery was considered an empiric matter, less difficult and important than physical medicine that implied a deep theoretical knowledge and allowed to make diagnosis and prescribe therapies. Surgeons performed different kinds of operations, but also barbers could operate (Pitrè, 1992, pp. 127-129). The division between physicians and surgeons was born in the Middle Ages. The job of the physician was clearly explained by Egidio of Corbeil (1140-1223) inhis book Carmen de urinarum iudiciis et de pulsibus. Maybe it circulated in medieval Sicily; the Library of the monastery of Monreale kept a copy of the book of Egidio de Corbeil, annotated by Gentile da Foligno, printed in Venice in 1494 (Garufi, 1902, p. 154). In Sicily surgery was taught privately, through a training that allowed the apprentice to learn the job, receive books and surgical instruments, and have a 1 “when the physician became proud of his knowledge and disdainful of the manual work, and abandoned the same surgery to ignorant people, barbers, and quacks”. 72 Barbers and Surgeons professional curriculum that could be used in the medical marketplace (Santoro, 2015, pp. 115-116). The inventories of books transcribed by Bresc show that in fourteenth-century Sicily the most widespread surgery handbooks were the XIIIth and XIVth century classics: Cyrurgia by Guglielmo da Saliceto, Chirurgia magna by Bruno da Longobucco, and Chirurgia by Guy de Chauliac. There was only a copy of the works by Lanfranco da Milano, Teodorico Borgognoni, and Pietro d’Argellata (Bresc 1971, p. 38)2. According to all the authors present in the Sicilian inventories studied by Bresc, a good physician had to combine theory and experience, because “book learning gave a physician the proper theoretical framework in which to place his surgical training” (Robison, 2014, pp. 179-180). Bruno Longobucco clearly explained the surgeon’s job: “ricongiungere le cose separate, separare quelle congiunte contro natura ed eliminare il superfluo3“ (Agrimi, Crisciani, 1980, p. 167). Pietro d’Argellata thought that “surgery had to be grounded in medical science”, but physicians were more important than surgeons (Mc Vaugh, 2000, p. 295). In the first half of the fifteenth century in Sicily practitioners needed a special licence that could be valid in all the Kingdom, in a city, a terra4, or a medical branch, not only to practice the noble and titled physical medicine, but also to perform surgical operations (Santoro, 2011, pp. 144-147)5. In 1398 actendentes grave dispendium et irrecuperabile dampnum quod solet ac posset contingere ex impericia tam in phisica quam in cirurgia praticancium non licenciatorum nec approbatorum in solemnibus studiis nec examinatorum per electos medicos nostros6 and considering that arrogance combined with ignorance could damage his subjects, Martin I appointed protomedicus of the Kingdom of Sicily Blasco Scamacca, magister in artibus et in medicina licenciatus medicus. The king authorized Blasco to condemn those who worked as practitioners without a licence. He had to work with a judge of the Magna Regia Curia or a qualified jurist, to punish physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, and barbers. No one could 2 On the quoted authors see Mc Vaugh, 1995, pp. 243-255. 3 “to put together separated things, to separare the unnaturally joined ones and to eliminate the unnecessary ones”.